I'll be moving a bunch of old posts about in-game advertising from a thesis blog I set up half a decade ago to AdLab. It's something I've been meaning to do forever, and now that Google is shutting down FTP support I finally get to do it.
Depending on how your RSS reader is set up, you might see these old posts showing up in your feed as new. Sorry for the clutter, I'll try to wrap things up quickly.
Slogan Slingers Crowdsource Slogans
You can get your next ad slogan crowdsourced with SloganSlingers.com for about $200, or you can use this handy free slogan generator.
Related: literary analysis of advertising slogans, reenacting corporate slogans, and the inherent poetry of advertising.
Renault Puts Electric Cars in Sims 3
Electronic Arts and Renault announced an agreement that will enable players of The Sims 3 to download Renault's electric vehicles into the game. "This Spring, Renault's Twizy Z.E Concept car will be made available to download free of charge [...] within an Electric Vehicle Pack."
Two years ago, Ikea released a Stuff Pack for Sims 2, a year after H&M. I've also seen BP-branded windmills in the most recent SimCity Societies.
Some numbers: "Since its June 2009 launch, The Sims 3 has sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide to date." Fans have downloaded 130 million copies of player created content that includes Sims, houses, and stories. Nearly 2 million uploads have been made to date to the Sims 3 community site, "including 20 movies each hour. The Sims 3 YouTube Channel is in the top ten most viewed sponsored channels of all time with more than 28 million video views."
-- press release, Joystiq
Two Banners In One Short RSS Feed Item
I'm all for making money, and I know RSS ads aren't known for high click-throughs, but two banners in each non-full RSS feed item?
Projector Turns Surfaces Into Touch Screens
A follow-up to the post from earlier today about student experiments with projected interfaces: "Light Touch is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen." Not for sale yet, but apparently available to potential partners.
- via
Skinput Body Interface Listens for Taps on Skin
CNN Labs (?) runs a story about Skinput, a prototype interface that appropriates the human body as input device, developed by a Carnegie Melon grad student and Microsoft researcher. "Skinput can tell whether a person tapped a middle finger or an index finger, because the two moves sound slightly different to the springy receivers."
Related: some other work in this area as well as the now-famous Sixth Sense prototype from MIT.
Student Projects Explore Projection Interfaces
Five student projects at Uni of Washington explore "projection of interfaces on any surface suitable for display and interaction in the home of the future." Pictured above is an interactive cooking coach. I also like their solution to losing things around the house
Useless
Next time you hear news organizations complain about the internets stealing their headlines and stories, show them this. In today's mainstream media's coverage of Gizmodo's iPhone 4G stunt, there is not a single line, not a single angle that adds anything new of value to the original story. All they do is summarize what Gizmodo has already published. Look:
AP: Pics of purported next-generation iPhone reach Web
AFP: Apple wants its iPhone back
Telegraph: Apple orders Gizmodo return iPhone 4G
Bloomberg: New IPhone Found, Has Front-Facing Camera, Blog Says (Update3)
WSJ: Web Site's Account Of iPhone Fuels Buzz
NYT: For Apple, Lost iPhone Is a Big Deal
CNNMoney / Fortune: Apple wants its secret iPhone back
P.S. Is Apple's missive claiming the device the mellowest legal letter ever? "Please let me know where to pick up the unit."
AP: Pics of purported next-generation iPhone reach Web
AFP: Apple wants its iPhone back
Telegraph: Apple orders Gizmodo return iPhone 4G
Bloomberg: New IPhone Found, Has Front-Facing Camera, Blog Says (Update3)
WSJ: Web Site's Account Of iPhone Fuels Buzz
NYT: For Apple, Lost iPhone Is a Big Deal
CNNMoney / Fortune: Apple wants its secret iPhone back
P.S. Is Apple's missive claiming the device the mellowest legal letter ever? "Please let me know where to pick up the unit."
Eww. 2 Girls 1 Sub [nsfw]
Wonder how Quiznos feels about its sandwich starring in this Playboy's prequel to the grossest internet meme since goatse. And if you are blissfully ignorant of the reference, please, please, don't try to look it up. This is AdLab's best advice in its five years on air.
Related: Mr. Clean and brand mascots in erotic fantasies
The Playboy video is below.
Future: Cell Phones As Personal Information Filters
This article was originally written for and published by Canvas8 in November 2009.
Pay no attention to the man holding the receiver; it’s the phone itself you’ll need to impress.
A small army of editors, programming directors, critics, censors, librarians and curators have shaped choices of entire generations. But just like factory workers of the 19th century found themselves inevitably replaced by the more efficient machines, human gatekeepers are giving way to a new breed of automated tastemakers – sophisticated software that separates the information wheat from the chaff and whose influence is growing as fast as the amount of information we produce.
That is, pretty fast.
In 2002, the amount of new information was estimated to double every three years. Today, it is doubling in size every 18 months. IBM expects that soon the amount of information will be doubling every eleven hours. 47,000 radio stations around the world pump out 70 million hours of original radio programming; 21,000 TV stations create 31 million hours of news, dramas, and reality shows; and printing presses roll out over a million new book titles, 25,000 newspapers, 80,000 trade periodicals and 37,000 academic journals. (source)
Finding a needle in this haystack of information requires superhuman powers. It is likely that in the near future these powers will come packaged in a slick portable device that stays awake around the clock, knows your tastes, detects your mood, programs your TV, fills your earbuds with infallibly pleasing music, and instructs you what to have for dinner and where, what books to read and what clothes to buy.
It will probably be a (really) smart phone.
Pay no attention to the man holding the receiver; it’s the phone itself you’ll need to impress.
A small army of editors, programming directors, critics, censors, librarians and curators have shaped choices of entire generations. But just like factory workers of the 19th century found themselves inevitably replaced by the more efficient machines, human gatekeepers are giving way to a new breed of automated tastemakers – sophisticated software that separates the information wheat from the chaff and whose influence is growing as fast as the amount of information we produce.
That is, pretty fast.
In 2002, the amount of new information was estimated to double every three years. Today, it is doubling in size every 18 months. IBM expects that soon the amount of information will be doubling every eleven hours. 47,000 radio stations around the world pump out 70 million hours of original radio programming; 21,000 TV stations create 31 million hours of news, dramas, and reality shows; and printing presses roll out over a million new book titles, 25,000 newspapers, 80,000 trade periodicals and 37,000 academic journals. (source)
Finding a needle in this haystack of information requires superhuman powers. It is likely that in the near future these powers will come packaged in a slick portable device that stays awake around the clock, knows your tastes, detects your mood, programs your TV, fills your earbuds with infallibly pleasing music, and instructs you what to have for dinner and where, what books to read and what clothes to buy.
It will probably be a (really) smart phone.
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